How Much Does DREDD Have To Make In The U.S. To Get Us A Sequel?? Alex Garland Says...

...$50 million seems to be the magic number. Garland appeared at London Film and Comic Con over the weekend, where DREDD was pimped, and discussed where the latest theatrical adaptation of the JUDGE DREDD comics might head after the first installment hits screens in September.

If they want to make sequels, I’ve got a story that goes from this one into the origins of Dredd and the city. Then the third one has would have a strange, existential attack from the Dark Judges.

...said Garland, who offers more insight via THIS write-up at Bleeding Cool.

1995's Stallone-starring adaptation of the material will FINALLY arrive on Blu-ray here in the States mid-September (HERE), having already been available on the format for some time in other regions. Looking forward to the Blu of that one - at the very least it's a visually arresting film which should look amazing in HD.

Angel gang and ABC Warrior aside, they didn't nail shit.
Fucking travesty of a movie.
New one will bury it's memory and hopefully open the gates for Rogue Trooper, Strontium, Nikolai, Durham Red and all the other great characters that fucking OWN the DC and Marvel shite we have to make do with in Hollywood.

I think they've taken the right approach with it in producing it on a lower budget. Too many films these days have stupid-sized budgets and they don't stand a chance of making them back. Karl Urban is a good choice for Dredd and from the trailer he looks great. DNA Films have produced some quality flicks over the years so don't be a dickhead in writing this one off just yet.

From small things like the helmet being wrong, through the Angel gang looking nothing like the Angel gang (only exception being Mean), Fargo being chief judge still, the dumb sidekick, the dumb bikes, the helmet and uniform coming off for most of the film, the final act being butchered (disappearing clones and facility blowing up for no reason), all the way to the biggest no-no of Hershey and Dredd making out and Dredd riding off happy with a Diane Lane induced boner. They fucked up every single thing - a lot of it due to Stallones ego at the time not allowing him to play the actual Dredd character and instead want an American audience friendly happy-clappy version. It was a fucking abomination and however this new Dredd film turns out? Can't be worse than the 1995 movie.

I like the ideas from Garland. It is what I have been saying for years. Seems like he really knows his Dredd. I agree with setting up the universe and characters first and then doing cursed earth/angel gang second, then dark judges for the 3rd film. I would set up judge child in one of those for a superman 1/zod style for city of the damned story for a 4th film.

Personally I'm almost as excited about this movie as I was The Avengers. The character has a lot of potential for a kick ass franchise and I HOPE Dredd is as badass as the trailer indicates. And yes, I liked some of the 1995 Stallone version but the nihilistic, anarchist feel of the comics was sadly missing to appeal to the masses.

usually 40% of total takings is from the u.s. and he's hoping for 50mil u.s. which means the other 60% = 75mil international for a total of 125 mil worldwide. right?
now, you need twice the budget to break even, so thats 45 x = 90.
125-90 = 35mil profit. although some of that 35mil has gotta got towards promotional costs or whatever. so 50mil domestic is the least they should hope for just to break even and maybe earn a little bit of profit.
gonna need more than that for a sequel, alex.

Ok, some people have already seen an early print of the new Dredd. And the consensus... Yeah, it's good. Not the best film that will set the world alight, but a good, solid, action film, some great set pieces, actual characterization for the main characters, not too light, close (in tone) to the comics, with Urban nailing a 'hard ass' Dredd who is closer to the comic version than the Stallone version before.
Personally, I think it is a good strategy of the film company - create a film for $35million so that the final take is achievable, and build on that initial showing to build a further franchise of movies.
I for one am looking forward to seeing the finished article and hope that enough people see it to give it a couple more installments.
And even though it may not totally feel right in a more 'serious' realistic version of Mega City, I'd look forwards to a cinematic version of Judge Death and his brothers too.

There seems to be more to the film than just the assault on the Block.
No one knows more about this movie than the pretty good trailer has alluded to.
Lets hope the haters will dial back the bullshit until we finally get to watch the movie.
Or is an UK originated comic to much for your Marvel/DC fed brains to cope with?
I don't know if this film is going to rock.
I do know I'll see it anyway.
I don't know what the general population, those non Dredd and genre fans are going to make of it.
I'm hoping they'll enjoy it anyhow.
After the assassination of Prometheus and John Carter by haters here, I'm hoping against hope that they'll fuck off and die before they spoil the run up to a possibly decent film of a potential franchise that might really entertain.

I was at the LFCC and I can assure that the new footage shown there was absolutely phenomenal!
The comic character has been totally brought to life by Karl Urban and the filmmakers.
In the clip shown Dredd was depicted as he should be as a cold, clinical and brutal dispatcher of of bad guy scum!
Like the first Dirty Harry movie projected into a violent and chaotic future!
Also, although only shown in 2D and on a crappy monitor the footage looked beautiful and the shots fantastically composed.
In short, it was the very antithesis of mainstream, homogenized crud like the Resident Evil and those Underworld movies.
This film will be beautifully brutal and have something to say about where society could be headed.
Trust me, you'll want to see this movie!
And I'm not Robert Plant!

Please...if there's anyone involved with the making of these films reading this now...for the love of God and the fans....please NO origin stories!!!!!!!!
I've wanted to see the Dark Judges especially Judge Death on the big screen for years. That is the way to go with the second film.
As for a third potential film, I'd like to see the Apocalypse War.
Now there's a nice way to round out the trilogy!!

Urban's nailed the character. Garland's nailed the atmosphere and a gritty, smaller scale story to introduce Joe's world. This is the movie I'm most stoked for this whole year.
I must say though, compared to some of the Dredd fans posting, I'm not that keen for a Dark Judges storyline in any possible sequels. They need to introduce the supernatural element that was present in the strips in a more low key way -I agree with one of the other posters about the second movie perhaps at least introducing Owen Krysler and having Dredd be responsible for his death - before a third movie being a full on, harrowing, dark adaption of City of the Damned. Now that would be superb. I'd love to see Death, Fear, Fire and Mortis introduced in one film, then Necropolis adapted for the next, just can't see it being possible and the budget needed to realize it would be way too much. Go smaller. Darker even. City of the Damned would be perfect.

Something else, while I've been mulling over the footage from LFCC, is the look of the film.
Garland and co have described the film as a cross between Blade Runner and A Clockwork Orange and I totally get where they're coming from-the film has an almost Kubrickian/Documentary look and feel to its depiction of enviroment and violence.
But you know what else the look of it reminded me of?
Those fantastic crime thrillers by William Friedkin, Don Segal, John Frankenheimer and all those other greats from the '70's
Now don't worry, if that all sounds a bit challenging for you, I'm sure there'll be another generic Jason Statham movie just around the corner.

If you can't see how they've nailed the essence of the character then you obviously know fuck all about Dredd. Beyond that, funnily enough, there's more information out there about what they've done with this movie, not to mention THE WHOLE FUCKING SCRIPT IS ONLINE, DICKHEAD so I've made my mind up from a whole slew of different sources besides just that rather awesome trailer, that this film has got great potential. But still, enjoy being a miserable cunt and hoping everything fails. Personally, I'm gonna have a terrific September.

Block mania, lower budget, not a million miles from already trailed footage, finished with a cliffhanger, the attack of east meg 1, sequel, big war flick in the shape of the Apocalypse war. The judges win...well duuuhh....cue cliff hanger in 2....the dark judges arrive with a quick confrontation with a group of celebrating survivors..."the crime issss life, the sssentence issss death!"

I agree... this is pretty damn close to the Dredd i've read for years.
The trailer is spot on and I know for sure that the script nails it... If anyone has any doubts it's out there.
I'll be seeing this with a few friends so that's £60.00 towards the cause ;)

- in a pincer movement, with you charging South from the frozen wastes of Canadia, me sweeping West from Bonnie Scotchland.
As we two prove- the Dredd comics are pretty well known in major English speaking territories and worldwide. However much this film takes in the US, we can expect it to do well in the rest of the world.
Just look at the Youtube hits, and the graph next to the counter shows a great deal of those hits are coming from South America, India and Russia- massive markets!

I haven't been expecting it to do too well in the states. Dredd never did translate too well for them. But this version hopefully has a chance of bringing a few more yanks to the fold. Where it's really going to make money is in Europe and considering the growing good word on it, I think we're going to get another Flash Gordon situation - loved in Europe where it makes loads of money and has a big following, and mostly misunderstood and ignored stateside. Hope I'm wrong on the latter but I can't see anyway its not going to make enough money for a sequel, especially if they don't demand an inflated budget. It's a good time to be a Dredd fan.

... the guy from Fiddler on the roof, the Welsh James Bond, and Max von Sydow- from that Judge Dredd film they all love so much!
How many times have you read US posters repeating the Stallone film's LAAAAAWWWWW!!!! catchphrase? Flash Gordon's got 'Gordon's alive?!', fer heaven's sake!
What's NOT to like?

...so yes I'll never understand why the Americans weren't just as keen on it as us Europeans lol. My prized possessions are two signed original Flash posters by Sam Jones, one for me, one for my wife. It was Dalton's best non-Bond film (he's still the best Bond IMO ) and Blessed was never more glorious! Not to mention, Ornella Muti literally sown into silk trousers. It is the most cinematic, the most fun, and the greatest film ever in the history of film making. Anyone who doesn't see that is beyond all mental help, frankly.

Is it just that you like shitting in people's Cheerios? Is it the because of the bitter-internet-dickhead erection that you get from feeling superior to people who are excited about it? Maybe the movie will be terrible, maybe it will be great. Maybe it will sell 6 tickets, maybe it will be 6 million. Either way, deciding a movie is crap, then commenting on EVERY SINGLE article AICN posts about it to say the same shit over and over...
I mean, you might as well just walk up to random groups of people on the street to tell them that whatever conversation they're having is stupid. Yes, you have every right to give your opinion, but boy does it ever make you look like a maladjusted asshole.

Sure there's a lot of baggage over the Stallone film (except for you four people in the world who liked it). And yes there are always crap scifi films pumped out of Hollywood like Lockout and Resident Evil 29 or whatever. But I want to like Urban, I want there to be a good Dredd film finally, and some of the credits on this film ain't so bad. Maybe the film will be trash but I'm going to wait and see.

Saw it at Apple. Got the weird (and probably unique to me) impression Dredd was the bad guy in the flick. I mean, that mind altering drug looked like the only thing that could make living in Mega City One tolerable, and he wants to stop it? Sorry, I'm on Crime Queen's side.

It's long been John Wagner's intention that Dredd be shown as a heroic figure, but within a massively totalitarian regime that allows virtually no pleasures or freedoms because it has to so ruthlessly surpress the citizens to have any hope of keeping order in such a huge, otherwise out of control metropolis. Dredd is meant to be a guy who'd do anything to save a citizen, but god help that citizen if he steps outside the law.

I'll also take this new "crappy looking" Dredd film over another glossy Spiderman.
Maybe it will be shit, but it is Judge Dredd, who would just shoot Spidey out of the sky or off the side of a building without breaking a sweat.
Engage nerd rage!!!!!

....is because Urban it seems has actually done a fair amount of reading regarding the history of the character. In 1977 when Wagner created the character he was very influenced by Dirty Harry, wanting to create a futuristic version in effect, and after various changes along the way Dredd is what he and Carlos Ezquerra came up with. Along with the uniform design changes and Urban's take on how Dredd sounds, it seems like they're going back to the original well for the character.

Seriously people, Garland wants this to make $50m in the US? Well what about the fact that the superb Rambo (2008) could only gross $48m with a star name and franchise attached? This film will open to lukewarm weekend and drop off like a rock, never making the required $50m. In the UK it's going to do massive business due to the Dredd fanbase, but Dredd is virtually unknown as a character in the US. Sorry folks...